One Last Earthquake For My Angel
by RyanGosling4Ever
Summary: Lance gets seriously injured in a fight and is dying. It's Pietro who has to break the news to Kitty. This is set three years later, so Pietro just graduated, Kitty's a senior, and Lance is already out of H.S. Review! ^.^
1. Default Chapter

It was Pietro who was the one to break the news to Kitty. He wasn't too thrilled with the job. Not one bit. *Why me?* he thought bitterly as he sped to the mansion. But Lance had insisted, even pleaded with the young speed demon to go, knowing that no one but Quicksilver could be capable of getting down to the Mansion, get Kitty, and speed back in five seconds flat. It would be this speed that Lance would be so desperately needing, desperately counting on. So in the end, Pietro had gone. But then again, he hadn't had much of a choice.  
  
"He'sdown," Pietro said numbly seconds later. When Rogue had opened the door, he had zipped in, found Kitty in the kitchen, grabbed her, ran into the living room, sat her down in a chair, and started explaining all in the blink of an eye.  
  
Kitty blinked. *Like, what the heck just happened?* she thought, confused. *How'd I end up in the living room? Wasn't I just in the kitchen getting a snack like half a split second ago?* There was only one person in her entire life who she knew could run at a speed like that, and that had been a lifetime ago. *Was it really just a year?* she mused to herself. Then after the initial shock of the pure speed of it all wore off a bit, Kitty gaped at the boy who was pacing the room at an incredible speed, and who was going on ranting about something, his words all strung together in a non comprehensible string. It was him. Right down to the two silvery wisps of gravity defying bangs.  
  
"Pietro?" Kitty murmured, staring at the blur before her, as the boy was pacing back and forth so fast. "Wha-?" A million things raced through her head. "What are you doing back here?" What was the arrogant and often brash speed demon doing here? And at the mansion of all places? The last she'd heard, Pietro had split town after graduation last year, had taken to life in the fastest of the fastest lane possible, just like she and everybody had always known he would do. His constant pacing was starting to get to her and Kitty had to look away. It was also starting to get her nervous. She'd never seen Pietro like this, so out of control, and with that trapped look in his dark blue eyes. When he finally stopped pacing, Kitty caught something else in those eyes that really scared her. Panic. *Panic?* she frowned. *It like, can't be… can it?* she thought. *Does Pietro even know how to panic?* He'd always been the most composed person out of everybody she'd ever known in her life. Confident and composed, and the most arrogant, conceited, sure of himself person she'd ever met. Every time Kitty turned around, Pietro always had at least three or four girls hanging onto him, looking up at him in pure adoration. Pietro Maximoff had never known Panic in his life, and yet, that was what Kitty could clearly see in his eyes: panic burning triumphantly in Quicksilver.  
  
"I don't have time to explain," Pietro snapped, turning his complete attention to her for the first time since he'd arrived. "Lance is down and he really wants to see you, Pryde." 


	2. Dying

"Huh?" Kitty gaped at him. *What did he just say?!* "Down? What do you mean down?" she demanded nervously, dreading the answer that she had to know.  
  
Pietro sighed impatiently. "Didn't I just say I didn't have time to explain?" he said, closing his eyes and rubbing his temple, willing the headache to go away. It didn't. It got worse. "He'sdyingandthedoctorsayshe'sonlygotafewhourstoliveatmostandhereallywantstoseeyou," he muttered.  
  
Kitty blinked. "Can you like, slow down?" she asked. "I totally did not get a thing you just sa-"  
  
"He's dying!" Pietro shouted. His voice echoed strangely through the house. "Is this slow enough for you, Kitty?!"  
  
"What?!" Kitty stared at Pietro in shock. "You're like, totally kidding, right?" She searched frantically through Pietro's eyes, to find something, anything, that told her this was just another one of Quicksilver's many jokes and pranks. But his eyes revealed nothing, just a blank expression of shock.  
  
"Then... it's true?" Kitty asked timidly.  
  
"Of course it's true!" Pietro snapped. "My best friend is dying and you think I have the time of day to sit here and lie to you?!"  
  
"Well, I-"  
  
"Great. This is just perfect." Pietro muttered. "I come out here to get you because Lance insisted on seeing you, and by doing that, probably get better. But nooo, what do I get? The love of his life over here wasting time thinking I'm making the whole thing up and lying to her! Kitty, let's GO! Sometime today would be nice, huh?"  
  
"Okay, okay!" Kitty huffed, but was too much in shock to argue further with the annoying speed demon. "You don't have to be that way about it!"  
  
Pietro rolled his eyes, then grabbed Kitty and zoomed her over to the hospital where Lance was at in a flash.  
  
"Whoa!" Kitty gasped when they'd arrived just outside the hospital building. "Now that was just... fast," she finished, not being able to think of a better word for it.  
  
Despite his annoyance with the younger girl, and his anxiety over his "brother", Pietro had to crack a small grin at that. "Quicksilver Express," he smirked. "The greatest thing in creation."  
  
Kitty shook her head. *Why did I just say that? And why does Pietro have to interpret everything said to him as a compliment and a feeder to his already oversized ego the size of the Northern Hemisphere?!* she thought. Turning her sight to the hospital ward door, Kitty hesitated, then walked as in a trance toward the entrance door.  
  
"Kitty, he's this way," Pietro said, pointing toward the huge sign on the other side of the building. It read "Emergency: Intensive Care Unit".  
  
"Emergency?" Kitty said, her voice catching in her throat. "How bad is he?" she whispered.  
  
"Pretty bad. They found him in the streets of downtown Manhattan." Pietro's voice burned with hatred, and his icy blue eyes flashed. "Thosebastardsthatdidthistohimaregonnapay," he muttered bitterly.  
  
"He's not like, going to... die..., is he... Pietro?" Kitty asked in a tiny voice. Her blue eyes searched Pietro's azure eyes, imploring an answer. He looked away, and was silent for a while. It seemed like an eternity to Kitty, those seconds of silence. Finally, Pietro looked up.  
  
"Yes," he whispered. 


	3. Once you own it, nothing can own you... ...

The young speed demon's eyes were squeezed shut, as Kitty stood there in shock.  
  
"Wh-what?" she stammered.  
  
"The doctors say he doesn't have long to live." There was a strange catch to Pietro's voice, and Kitty dimly had the impression that the young speed demon was on the verge of tears. And for the first time since she'd met Pietro Maximoff a.k.a. Quicksilver all those years ago, her heart went out to the silver haired young man. Through her own tears, Kitty peered up at Pietro, and truly wondered what all he'd had to put up with in his young life. *It's so hard to look at him as a college freshman*, she thought sadly. *It's so hard not to look at Pietro and still see him as the annoying egotistical sophomore that he was...* Kitty sighed. Am I *really* a senior now? Pietro... Kitty looked at him now with newfound respect. He'd been through so much... too much... His father being the mega-jerk Magneto that her teammates had fought for so long; having to relive his memories of his childhood when his sister Wanda had appeared in town a couple of years ago; and now, having to witness his best friend dying. Kitty swallowed, then turned toward the intensive care ward. She was ready. *I hope,* she thought.  
  
Upon entering the hospital, the two teens were struck by how quiet and eerily silent it was. Kitty shivered involuntarily, the world suddenly going in swirls around her.  
  
"Kitty?" Pietro looked down at the younger girl with concern in his voice. She looked like she was about to faint. "You okay?"  
  
Kitty straightened herself, then blinked to clear her vision. "Yeah, I'm-I'm fine," she lied. But that was so a lie. She was not okay. She was never going to be okay. Pietro's voice kept coming back into her head, refusing to stop playing like a tape over and over and over and over.... Dying... few hours to live... wants to see you... She *had* to close her eyes to keep the tears from spilling down her cheeks. Lance Alvers... dying? *Don't think death... don't think death... he's going to make it... he always makes it... he was the one who told you 'once you own it, nothing can own you' remember?* Kitty nearly choked on her tears as that memory came swirling back into her mind, like a dream in a cloud.  
  
"What? Are you like, reading my mind too?"  
  
"No way! I just want to talk. I won't shake things up, I promise. My name's Lance...You're making it yours Kitty. Once you own it, nothing can own you..."  
  
That was what Lance had said to Kitty three and a half years ago, and yet, it was still stuck in her mind. *Oh Lance,* she thought. *I wanted to believe you. But you are wrong... so wrong... that it cost you your life... You had control over earthquakes, but in the end, something still owned you, and claimed you. Bigotry of people... death..."  
  
"Kitty?" Pietro's voice interrupted her thoughts, and Kitty started, and blinked. "We should really get to Lance's room," he said quietly.  
  
*I'm not ready*, she wanted to whisper, or shout to the world, or do both at the same time. But what came out was a tiny "Okay, let's go."  
  
Taking the elevator up to the third floor in silence, the two got off and walked to a door at the end of the corridor. Room 314. Pietro and Kitty glanced nervously at each other, then taking a deep breath, Kitty slowly reached for the doorknob and twisted it, pushing the door open. They stood at the doorway for a second, both afraid to move, both afraid that by one taking the step into the room, they would be the first to realize that Avalanche was dead. Neither of them wanted to face that nightmare, so for a second, there was silence. Then Kitty sighed, and took a timid step forward.  
  
"Lance?" she whispered, her voice barely audible.  
  
A/N: Okay, I know what ya'll are thinking: "Argh! Lance can't die!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Right? ^.^ Way more to this story to come! Hehe... mwahahaha! Only I know the ending to this story!! I know, I know, I'm so mean, hehe... :p Check back for more very VERY soon!!!!! As always, R&R! And oh yeah, no, Kitty, Lance, Pietro, and CO. are not mine, and never will be...unless I have 500 million in cash to give to Xmen Evolution to borrow their characters. I have no money whatsoever...whatever money I have left is in the bank. The characters belongs to WB/Evolution, and I guess, also to Marvel. Pietro Maximoff owns me, hehehe! :) I own nobody. 


End file.
